In a photolithography process in processing of manufacturing, for example, a semiconductor device, for example, a resist coating treatment of applying a resist solution onto a wafer surface to form a resist film, exposure processing of applying light in a predetermined pattern to the resist film on the wafer surface to expose the resist film, heating processing of heating the wafer to accelerate the chemical reaction in the exposed resist film (post-exposure baking), developing treatment of developing the wafer which has been subjected to the heating processing and the like are performed in sequence to form a predetermined pattern in the resist film on the wafer surface.
Incidentally, for miniaturization of the pattern, the light for the above exposure processing is increasingly shortened in wavelength. In the method of shortening the wavelength for exposure, however, it is technically difficult to form a fine pattern at a level of 32 nm or 45 nm. Hence, it is proposed to form a fine pattern by performing exposure a plurality of times with the exposure location being shifted, for example, with respect to the resist film in the exposure processing (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).    [Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-21763    [Patent Document 2]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H7-147219